William Tallack (1831-1908) was a British social activist interested in penal reform
and heavily influenced by his Quaker faith. Tallack believed that offenders should
be offered opportunities for moral education and reflection, so that they could seek
salvation and forgiveness in the eyes of God. He advocated for prevention and treatment
of crime in addition to methods of deterrence. He pushed for teaching prisoners
new skills in order to educate them in personal responsibility and moral rectitude,
and believed in isolating criminals in singular cells so that they would be encouraged
to repent. Tallack believed that crime was caused by poverty, neglect, and a lack
of moral education, so he attempted to eradicate this by campaigning for better schools,
housing, sanitation and restrictive alcohol intake.

In 1863, Tallack became the secretary for the Society for the Abolition of the Death
Penalty, and in 1866 he became the secretary of the Howard Association, a group named
after an eighteenth-century prison reformer. He remained in this position until
his retirement in 1901.

Tallack published his views extensively in articles, letters to the press, pamphlets,
and books. His most famous books are Defects of Criminal Administration (1872) and Penological and Preventative Principles (1889).

The William Tallack Correspondence is a collection of incoming letters, most of which are in connection with Tallack's
position as secretary of the Howard Association, an organization devoted to the cause
of prison reform. A tireless social activist, Tallack enlisted the support of authors
(James Anthony Froude, Robert Hawker, Richard Houghton, William Lecky, George MacDonald,
George Augustus Sala) and clergymen (Randall Thomas Davidson, John Jackson, Henry
Parry Liddon, James Martineau, William Pennefather, Henry Richard, Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, A.P. Stanley, Archibald Tait, Frederick Temple, William Ullathorne, Herbert
Vaughan) as well as philanthropists (Michael Bass, Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury),
social reformers (William Booth, Charles Bradlaugh, John Bright, Mary Carpenter, Frances
Cobbe, Ouida), and statesmen (Arthur James Balfour, Joseph Chamberlain, Randolph Churchill,
William Gladstone, John Wodehouse Kimberley, John Morley, Thomas O'Hagan, Charles
Stewart Parnell).

Most of the letters in the collection are single items of correspondence thanking
Tallack for supplying 1) copies of his letters about prison reform which had appeared
in various publications; 2) the annual reports of the Howard Association; or, 3) Tallack's
own books and pamphlets regarding prison issues, and others of his various religious
and political tracts. Responding to the receipt of a reprint of a Tallack letter,
Herbert Gladstone writes (3 Oct. 1906):

I hold as strongly now as in 1894 that our efforts shd be to prevent the young criminal
from joining the ranks of the habitual; & that the habituals themselves should be
dealt with by methods more rational & more deterrent than those now in force. And
the very fact that so much has been done to make the prison treatment less repulsive
& more hopeful is in itself a reason why hardened old ruffians should not be allowed
to reap all its material advantages without the least intention of profiting or endeavoring
to profit an the moral side.

A Quaker, Tallack received the support of many of his fellow social reformers who
shared his religious convictions (Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, Bright, W.E. Forster).
The earliest letters in the collection are from Quakers William Allen, William Forster,
Joseph John Gurney, and Joseph Sturge, however these items are addressed to either
Simon Horner or John Barry, rather than Tallack.

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require
advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance
concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and
all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from
any
materials in this collection.